In physical exercise, the pulling movement is one of the most important due to the great muscle activation it provides. This consists of performing a certain amount of force (depending on the load) to bring an object towards some place, which is generally our body. Pedro Luis Rodríguez García says the following: ¨

Traction exercises are understood to be those that bring resistance to the body. These in turn may be in a vertical direction in front of the body or to its sides and could also be carried out in an anteroposterior direction or horizontally (2008, p. 102).

There are various types of traction exercises and the vast majority produce an activation of the great dorsal muscle, the type of grip (supine, neutral or prone) does not generate great differences in terms of the activation of a greater number of muscle groups, but it does a greater amount of fibers. In the case of pull-ups or pull-ups, it is still believed that there is better work in terms of bringing the bar to the chest or neck, Pedro Luis Rodríguez García in his book mentions that Boeckh-Behrens and Buskies according to electromyographic records they carried out concluded that none of these variants it preferentially activates the upper, middle and lower portions of the great dorsal muscle; however, there is a risk of injury to the shoulder joint when using the behind-the-neck variation.

Finally, having a clear concept about the pulling movement will help to be aware of the muscles that we are using, therefore, we can have a better organization in our workouts in this way we will obtain greater efficiency.

The pull ups and chin upst, are undoubtedly one of the best exercises to work the back, The muscles requested are the latissimus dorsi, biceps, forearms, teres major, lower portion trapezius, rhomboids and abdomen (in an isometric way). Of course, there are many variants of pull-ups, but in almost most cases the following tips will be of great help.

keep in mind that it is a pulling movement in which we must always keep in mind that it is the bar that should go towards us, since on the contrary it is thought that we are the ones who go to the bar.

Having a good grip is essential, since it will help us to maintain the position and not fatigue the forearms, in this way we can stay longer in suspension and do a better job (in terms of repetitions and resistance).

Weight or add weight to prone chin-ups or pull ups, this method should be taken into account when you already have a good command of this exercise, the added weight should start at 15% of our body weight at most and go progressively increasing it.

 to progress in pull-ups with all the plans that we have prepared for you.

Rodríguez, P. (2008). Ejercicio físico en las salas de acondicionamiento muscular: Bases científico-médicas para una práctica segura y saludable. Madrid: Ed. Médica Panamericana

Keys to improve Pull-ups

In this article I would like to make it clear to you once and for all and in a simple way how many sets to do for each muscle group for maximum hypertrophy, whether for calisthenics training, weighted calisthenics, weights or a combination of these.

What I want is for you not to be left with doubts about whether your training has a low volume of work or too much, but rather to find the optimal point based on the most advanced knowledge today, both scientific papers and empirical knowledge from the most prestigious trainers. (Scientific references at the end of the article)

For those who have already planned their training, it will help them check if they have an adequate number of sets, and for those who have not yet planned it, it will help them do it correctly and that from the beginning their training meets the requirements to effective. So let's get to it.


Optimal training division for hypertrophy in Calisthenics



Regarding the division of the training, to make it easier and more effective for you to calculate how many series you perform per muscle group, I recommend a push-pull-legs division as I believe it is the simplest and most effective way to divide a hypertrophy workout. where you will be clear that most of the exercises work the same muscles and therefore it will be easier to count how many sets you dedicate to each of them.



However, if they do torso-leg type routines or full body routines, it is a little more complex, although not impossible, to calculate the volume of work.

Another valid way would be a more specific Weider-type division in which each day you work a specific muscle group, instead of a group of muscles. For example, a chest day, a shoulder day, a back day, a quadriceps day, a femoral day, etc. But current knowledge tells us that it is probably simpler and more effective to do push-pull-legs.

That said, we are now going to specify the number of series recommended for each group, and we will do so depending on the experience and ability of the athlete.



How many sets to do per muscle group in your Calisthenics training: beginners



We will start with beginners for whom we recommend a minimum of 10 sets per muscle group per week.

This will be valid for all muscle groups but we must take into account a detail in the case of the legs, since we cannot count the whole legs as a single muscle group, but rather we will have to divide them at least into quadriceps on one side and femoral and glutes on the other.

Therefore, for the legs to get effective work, we should take into account a minimum of 10 series of exercises more focused on quadriceps and 10 series of exercises more focused on the femoral and glutes. And if we do exercises that involve both zones, such as squats or split squats, they would count as half a series for each group.

If this seems very confusing or complicated for you, we can simplify it by saying that the legs require twice as many sets as the rest of the muscle groups and with that you could design your routine effectively.

Also clarify that when I say series I mean effective series, series in which you really feel the work at the appropriate intensity, which in this case would be between 80 and 90% of your capacity. Warm-up sets or sets where you are calibrating intensity do not count.




How many sets to do per muscle group in your Calisthenics training: intermediates



Now let's go to the intermediate athletes, in which we are going to recommend a minimum of 15 effective series per muscle group and taking into account the same considerations with respect to the legs.



How many sets to do per muscle group in your Calisthenics training: advanced



And finally the advanced ones, for whom we recommend a minimum of 20 effective sets per muscle group, again with the considerations mentioned above.

There is another category that is considered elite, which would be athletes who have been training for many years and are very close to their natural limit, in which it has been seen that progress can be made with 25 effective series per muscle group, but it has not been investigated with more sets than that, so if you are an elite athlete with many years of experience I will leave it up to you.


If you already had your routine planned and divided before reading this article, I recommend that you do a count to check if you are in these ranges that I have mentioned, and you can make the necessary adjustments. If you are about to plan your routine, just keep it in mind and you will be able to plan a really effective workout.

As you can imagine, the number of series is not the only variable that affects the intensity of our training and the hypertrophy stimulus, although it is one of the most important. For the rest of the variables we have the cadence of movement, which I recently 

, and we will work on the rest of the variables in future articles, so stay tuned.

Also keep in mind that in Calisteniapp we have training programs, free routines and smart routines designed by me taking these factors into account, and every month we update it by adding more content of all kinds, reviewing previous content and implementing new functions. So download it If you haven't and stay tuned for news.



1. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Brad J Schoenfeld, Dan Ogborn, James W Krieger

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27102172/

2. A Systematic Review of the Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy
Eneko Baz-Valle, Carlos Balsalobre-Fernández, Carlos Alix-Fages and Jordan Santos-Concejero


https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/hukin-2022-0017

3. Schoenfeld, B., Fisher, J., Grgic, J., Haun, C., Helms, E., Phillips, S., Steele, J., & Vigotsky, A. (2021). Resistance Training Recommendations to Maximize Muscle Hypertrophy in an Athletic Population: Position Stand of the IUSCA. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning,

https://journal.iusca.org/index.php/Journal/article/view/81

How many sets per muscle group in your Calisthenics training

One of the most repeated doubts in terms of training is regarding the cadence of movement. Is it better to make the movement slow and controlled? Is it better to do the slow negative and the explosive concentric? Is there a difference if you want to train strength or hypertrophy? Is it necessary to make a stop at the end of the negative, at the end of the concentric? How many seconds should each cadence last?

In today's article we are going to solve these doubts so that it is very clear to you how to optimize the cadence according to your objective, be it strength or hypertrophy and stop having these doubts, with practical examples so that you can apply them to your training right now.

I would like to let you know that in this article I will be showing examples with calisthenics exercises but what we are going to explain is perfectly applicable to gym exercises, weighted calisthenics exercises, elastic band exercises and others.

 discount code in case you want to buy supplements, sports equipment or healthy eating, keep in mind that with my YERAI code you have a 10% discount plus direct gifts plus points that can be accumulated and exchanged for more gifts. The code is entered at the bottom when you go to confirm the order. It is one of the best ways you have to support me to continue creating content so I thank you very much.

During my career as a calisthenics athlete I had never trained with a goal of pure strength, nor pure hypertrophy, since I had always had other goals such as learning different tricks, competing and so on. But now I've been training for a few months with a clear goal of strength and hypertrophy and I've been learning, testing and applying different concepts that are giving me quite good results, and that I think will soon be reflected in my physical appearance and my ability, stay tuned so you don't miss it. One of these important concepts is the cadence of movement.

Before we dive into cadence itself, let's explain the general differences between strength training and hypertrophy training.


Strength training is based on moving more mass, specifically strength is defined as mass times acceleration. This mass can be our body weight, an external weight, or the sum of both.

Normally for strength you train with a low repetition range, between 1 and 5, and therefore using a load, or in the case of calisthenics, a difficulty of the exercise, according to that number of repetitions.


Hypertrophy training is based on increasing muscle mass as much as possible. To do this, we simply seek to give the muscle the amount of work volume it needs with a stimulus of mechanical tension according to that volume. Normally in hypertrophy you train between 6 and 20 repetitions with a weight or difficulty of the exercise adapted to that number of repetitions.

So with this in mind, what role does movement cadence play in these types of training?



Movement cadence for strength in Calisthenics



Let's start with strength, as we mentioned, it is mass times acceleration, therefore, in order to have the greatest possible strength, we are interested in having the greatest possible acceleration, it would not make sense to do a slow concentric, it would be counterproductive.

Although the technical and safety aspects must also be taken into account, because doing the repetition as quickly as possible without good control of the movement can be dangerous and cause an injury. But within a controlled and safe movement, it is in your best interest to do it as quickly as possible.

Therefore, knowing all this, what I am going to recommend for strength is:

- A relatively slow refusal or eccentric to prepare for the movement and maintain control of the weight or exercise without losing balance.

- A very small stop just before the concentric, which is enough to make sure that we do not take advantage of any inertia or rebound that worsens the technique.

- And a concentric as fast as possible but in which we do not lose control of the movement.

This could be summed up as a 3-1-1:


- 3” negative
- 1” stop
- 1” concentric


Although these numbers are just a reference to make it easier for you to memorize, because in real life it may not be exact, especially the stop, which is usually shorter than 1" and the concentric, which depending on the difficulty of lifting the weight or performing the exercise may be effectively 1" or even less, or if the exercise is difficult for us or it is too much weight for our capacity, the fastest we can move can be 2" or 3".

Also keep in mind that depending on the exercise, the order may change as we may start directly with the concentric or with the eccentric. But hey, we can say that the reference would be 3-1-1 and we understand each other.


Cadence of movement for hypertrophy in Calisthenics



Now let's go with hypertrophy, and here I am going to tell you that you have a free hand.

As we mentioned before in hypertrophy, the important thing is that the muscle receives a sufficient volume of work with an intensity in terms of sufficient mechanical tension, therefore as long as the targeted muscles are given that stimulus, the cadence of movement can be the one you like the most.

But it is true that we can be smart and use the cadence to our advantage for the hypertrophy stimulus. I think the clearest example is with the exercises that are easy for us.

Imagine that you want to train the pectoral doing push-ups or dips in parallel, but your level is already good in those exercises and you can do more than 30 repetitions without problem. In this case, doing sets of 12 or 15 repetitions would not be a good hypertrophy stimulus, so you would not be training optimally. However, if you modify the cadence and do very slow and controlled repetitions, it is possible that with 12 or 15 repetitions you will already be at 80 or 90% of your capacity.

The same is true the other way around, if an exercise is difficult or intense enough to give you that good kick in 10 reps, you can do it with normal cadence no problem, you don't have to be looking for ways to play with the tempos to make it more difficult. .


In order to make a general summary, we would say that for strength we should use a controlled cadence in the eccentric, a short stop and a fast concentric, which we symbolize with a 3-1-1.

And for hypertrophy we summarize by saying that you can do the cadence you want, as long as you receive a stimulus around 80% of your capacity between 6 and 20 repetitions.

Regarding Calisteniapp, let me tell you about the news, which is that we have just launched a new update with 10 new free routines, some of which have been asking for for a long time. And regarding the subject of this video,  in Calisteniapp we have a section of free sessions specific to mouscle groups and another specific section for strength, as well as smart routines and specific training programs in the pro version.



I hope this article has helped you and see you in the next ones.

Cadence in Calisthenics training for Hypertrophy and/or Strength

Calisthenics and climbing are two disciplines that have a lot in common, as in both you must have the ability to control your bodyweight. Therefore it is a very good idea to combine them and take advantage of the characteristics of each one to improve on the other.

In this article we are going to see which Calisthenics exercises are the ones that can help you the most to improve your climbing performance.


One of the decisive factors in being a good climber is the strength of your fingers, so exercises that focus on this aspect will help you a lot. Specifically, we have two examples:



In this exercise you must support the weight of your body with your fingers extended, so it will help you strengthen their connective tissue and make them much more capable. If you find it too difficult, you can start by doing variations for beginners such as kneeling push ups or inclined.


One of the classic exercises for climbers is to do pull-ups, or simply hang on the bar, with your fingers. You can vary and progress by changing the number of fingers you use. If you find them very complicated, you can do isometric, negative or Australian pull-ups. You have more information about the variants for beginners 

Another of the muscle groups that we are going to need the most in climbing is the entire area of the forearms. To work them we can use the following exercises:




They consist of hanging from the bar for a certain time, you can do it with two hands, one hand or varying between both arms.


For forearms we have specific exercises on the floor and with an elastic band, I leave you some examples in 

Another of the important sections is to have a good capacity in abdominals and hip flexors, to be able to lift your legs while hanging. For this we can use 3 main progressions:


Obviously for climbing you need to have a good strength in pull-ups, it is also convenient for you to master different types of grip to adapt to any situation, for example:




Once you master pull-ups you can try advanced versions, which will give you extra strength, for example:


The flag is an element that combines pulling and pushing strength, and that can be similar to some situations that you find yourself climbing, so it will be very useful for you to practice it. Here some examples:



I hope this article helps you. Soon we will add specific routines with these exercises for different levels in our Calistheniapp app, so stay tuned and subscribe to our Newsletter to receive the latest news.

How to combine Calisthenics and Climbing - Best Exercises

If you practice calisthenics or train at home without material, you may already be quite clear about the typical exercises to train our pectorals, our back, even our legs.

But if I ask you what are the exercises to train the rear and lateral part of the shoulder (rear deltoid and middle or lateral deltoid) it may raise more questions. Those muscles are very important for our aesthetics, since large and round shoulders are going to be key in the visual aspect and it is also very useful to have them worked for compensation issues, to improve posture and prevent injuries.

In this article we are going to see the best exercises to train these muscles, either at home without equipment, on the calisthenics bars or with an elastic band.




Biomechanics of the posterior and lateral shoulder and benefits of training them



Before looking at the exercises we are going to quickly review biomechanics so that you understand the function of these muscles and why the exercises we are going to see work them.

The deltoid muscle is divided into 3 main parts, the anterior, lateral and posterior deltoids, the latter two being the ones that interest us in this article.



The lateral deltoid is primarily responsible for arm abduction and the posterior deltoid is primarily responsible for horizontal abduction and extension of the shoulder.



In addition, the synergistic muscles we work when doing posterior shoulder exercises are external rotators of the humerus, so they will help us with the typical decompensations so frequent today of internal rotation that cause bad posture and pain and injury problems.

So, knowing this, what exercises do we have in calisthenics that involve these movements and give these muscles a good workout? 




Lateral and posterior shoulder exercises at home without equipment



We are going to start with exercises that can be done without equipment, so you can do them at home.

First of all we have the side plank twists, which can be done with the elbow extended or flexed, the latter version being slightly more difficult due to the shortening of the lever. In this movement we are performing a horizontal shoulder abduction, so the main muscle that we work is the posterior or rear deltoids, also having a secondary work on the lateral deltoids. You can extend the range of motion by touching the opposite shoulder with your free hand.



Next we have this rather peculiar exercise, and I have to admit that it is rather strange, but it gives a good lateral deltoid work. It consists of placing the hand at a height so that the abduction angle is more favorable. 



Now we have the lateral raises leaning against a post, a door, a door frame, a wall, or whatever you can think of. The ideal is to put a towel or a shirt on your forearm, or if you have one of these sleeves.


This exercise seems to me to be one of the best I have tried for the lateral shoulder area, since simply moving a few centimeters away or closer you can tremendously change the difficulty, and it can go from being a very simple exercise adapted for beginners, to a real hell that only the advanced will be able to perform.



Finally we have different variants of scapular retraction with shoulder extension on the floor. These types of exercises at first glance seem simple but I assure you that they are very intense, and that with a few series they will leave you with a quite powerful work on the rear deltoids or rear shoulder. At first they will seem a bit strange to you, the technique is a bit difficult to assimilate, but when you learn to do them well you will be able to get a lot out of them. I recommend you vary the repetitions with the isometric holds.




Lateral and rear shoulder exercises in the Calisthenics park



Let's go now with exercises that you can do using the bars of a calisthenics park.

In this case we have the Australians, one of our favorite exercises, which, as we have already mentioned, can give us a very good work on the rear deltoid and secondary work on the lateral deltoid. In addition, if we do them with the elbows out, we reduce the work on the dorsal, which is why they help us to compensate and avoid internal rotation. If they are very easy for you, you can use advanced variants such as explosives, archers or one hand, or you can also apply high intensity techniques that I recently explained on 


On to the classic pull-ups, we can perform them with greater scapular retraction, pointing the chest towards the sky and therefore we will have more posterior deltoid work, but it is true that even so we will have a main dorsal work, which depending on the case might not be so interested in doing.



As an advanced version we have the bar rows, in which the same thing happens, there is an important work on the dorsal and it may not be so beneficial if we are looking to isolate.




Lateral and posterior shoulder exercises with elastic band



Lets continue with exercises that can be done with an elastic band, with these exercises we will achieve much more isolated work, so it may be interesting for you.

We can start with the rear shoulder fly with the band, known as rear delt flys.


Then we have the lateral flys, which you can do by stepping on the band or hooking it to a low bar or similar


We can continue with the rowing with our elbows out, similar to what we did with the Australians.

And the row with external rotation, one of the most complete variants, but which has a certain technical complexity, I recommend that you record yourself doing it and compare it with this video to make sure that you manage to do it correctly.

The pure external rotation, in which they have to try to make the movement very clean, without spreading the elbows or moving the torso.

As a bonus track I leave the rear delt flys with rings in case they are also useful.


Many of these exercises are already included in Calisteniapp and we will add the remaining ones shortly, as well as specific rear and lateral deltoid work routines, so download it and keep it updated as we are adding content almost every two weeks.





I recommend that you not forget to include at least some of these exercises in your programming to, at least, make sure that you do not have problems with imbalance and excessive internal rotation. In addition, if you are interested in the aesthetic issue, round and full shoulders is one of the most important factors.

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Keys to improve Pull-ups

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